Gingrich: Save air travel now

The Obama administration is threatening to disrupt air travel as part of its rigid, destructive implementation of the sequestration spending reduction law.

Sign this petition to Washington elected officials in both parties demanding that they use common sense to save money so no air traffic controller and no airport security person is furloughed and no flight is cancelled or delayed because of politics.

Every American family knows what it is like to pinch pennies, control spending, and apply common sense to balance their family budget.

Every small business knows what it is like to be flexible, adaptable, frugal, and creative to survive in a difficult economy.

Only in Washington is an effort to control bureaucratic spending turned into a strategy to inflict maximum pain for political gain. This is just plain wrong.

Don’t let Washington politicians punish working, traveling Americans. Don’t allow politicians to impose the cost of their rigidity and their failure by making working Americans feel pain.

The Obama administration is threatening to disrupt air travel as a rigid, destructive, implementation of the sequestration law. President Obama warned “air traffic controllers and airport security will see cutbacks, which means more delays at airports across the country.”

Two million Americans fly every day. More than 500,000 Americans work for the airlines. Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports alone create 540,000 jobs. Between airport employees, rental cars, concessionaires, hotels, and restaurants, millions rely on an effective, efficient, reliable air travel system for their livelihood.

Their lives should not be disrupted just because the Washington politicians can’t get their act together.

The economy should not be driven into higher unemployment and a deeper recession because Washington politicians refuse to exercise common sense.

There are 55,000 employees in the Department of Transportation with a proposed $74 billion budget for fiscal year 2013.

Airline domestic flights are down 27 percent since 2000. The Federal Aviation Administration’s operations account has grown 41 percent or almost $3 billion since 2002. Average compensation at the FAA, including benefits, is $155,000.

The FAA has $500 million for consultants and a lot of other non-Air Traffic Controller costs.

The FAA actually saved $400 million in the first quarter which is 80 percent of the total projected sequester for that agency.

With a little intelligent common sense it would be easy to manage the sequester without furloughing a single air traffic controller.

The situation in the Department of Homeland Security is similar. There are many places to save money at Homeland Security without furloughing a single Transportation Safety Agency airport security officer.

If there is any disruption in air travel it will be the fault of rigid Washington politicians who are punishing the American people because of their own failure to apply common sense and flexibility.

Sign this petition to Washington elected officials in both parties demanding that they use common sense so no air traffic controller and no airport security person is furloughed.